Calling Verizon was more difficult than I imagined, but not because the system was difficult. There were just some breakdowns along the way that made it more challenging. I suspect that Verizon could use better quality assurance with its customer care line because if it had that, then it would probably improve the system. The wait time to talk to someone is also long, which is understandable given how many different reasons people may have to call Verizon.
I was just calling to see what they would offer me to buy out my AT&T contract, but I am sure that there are a lot of different concerns. Verizon offers in-car internet, television internet, phone lines and plenty of other services and I am sure that technical support is a constant buzz. Of course, you would think that for sales calls they would offer a bit more prompt service, but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least not in the afternoon hours, which is when I called.
When I first called this number, the first thing I discovered was that this number is no longer active. I had it stashed somewhere, but I guess it's time to update their information because the line said, "This number is no longer active. To reach Verizon, please call 800-922-0204." I had to call twice because I wasn't prepared to write down a new number, and the number wasn't repeated. This led me to call the second number, and that was answered with this message, "Welcome to Verizon, I am the Verizon assistant. Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and security." It then informed me, "Starting with the area code, please enter or say the number you are calling about. If you are not yet a customer, press pound."
I was not a customer, so I pressed pound and got a new list of options that included: "To become a Verizon mobile customer, or for a prepaid account, press 1. Make a payment on a disconnected account, press 2. For help with a TV, press 3. Help getting the mobile number for a device, press 4. Check the status of a recycling or replacement request, press 5. For your connected car Wi-Fi, press 6. Anything else, press 7."
This would have been fine, except no matter how many times I pressed 1, the system would not recognize it. Instead, it just repeated the same options a second time, told me it didn't recognize my response and hung up on me. So when I called back and went through it again, I tried pressing 7, which did work. I don't know if this affected my wait time, though, as I spent almost 15 minutes waiting to talk to someone. Overall, it wasn't the smoothest experience.